Deploy, fight, achieve

Army demonstrated its potency during the successful 3rd Brigade Combined Arms Training Activity (CATA) at the Townsville Field Training Area from 6-20 June 2014.

A diverse range of enablers integrated with the north Queensland combat brigade to conduct a full mission rehearsal for Exercise Hamel 2014 and certify the Ready Battle Group with 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment as the new Ready Combat Team.

The exercise involved more than 2300 troops from across Australia and validated the adaptability and effectiveness of the Plan Beersheba combat brigade.

CATA focused on the conduct of high-end mid-intensity conventional foundation warfighting with battlegroup manoeuvre activities and concluded with a brigade-level live-fire exercise.

Commander 3 Brigade Brigadier Roger Noble said it took a lot of time, effort and resources to put all the pieces of the combat brigade together to test them in realistic scenarios.

“We deployed with the complete combined arms team combined with enablers from 6th Brigade, 17th Combat Service Support Brigade and 16th Aviation Brigade,” Brig Noble said.

“Plan Beersheba has allowed us to put together a first world combat brigade.

“We have capabilities now I never thought would be in Army, let alone available at formation or unit-level to help us train and prepare.”

During the exercise all the brigade’s combat arms and the combat support arms practised offensive and defensive actions, as well as the complete procedures for handling casualties or prisoners of war.

Brigadier Noble said CATA ensured the brigade could do the job and be effective against the enemy.

“It was fantastic to see the battalion attacks by 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regimnet and 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment, followed by the integrated formation attack using all our assets,” Brig Noble said.

“CATA is a big investment by Army and is the peak combined arms activity of the year.”

The 2014 sequence of sub-unit collective training followed by Exercise Silicon Brolga, then CATA, is a combination of lessons learnt by Army over the past 10 years and has helped the brigade achieve combined arms and Royal Australian Air Force integration.

Brigadier Noble said 3rd Brigade had put the team together and was now ready to exploit it’s capabilities.

“We will treat Exercise Hamel as a war,” Brig Noble said.

“We will deploy, fight the fight, achieve the mission and then come home.”